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Hugo Chavez's reign in Venezuela will extend to 20 years, assuming he's telling the truth about having beaten his cancer. The 58-year-old defeated 40-year-old challenger Henrique Capriles in today's presidential election by 54% to 45%, reports Reuters. Capriles had figured to make oil-rich Venezuela more business-friendly and bring it back into the good graces of the US, but Chavez, who has ruled since 1999 with a socialist bent, won another six years instead.

"We have planted many seeds across Venezuela and I know that these seeds are going to produce many trees," Chavez said in a speech tonight, reports the AP.

The U.S. voting system is a crap compared to how secure Venezuela's voting system is: "[Voters first registered themselves by inputting their name, national identity number and thumbprint using a console. They then cast an electronic vote for their preferred party candidate on a touchscreen. Their vote entered the central counting system and was printed so that they could confirm it was recorded properly before that hard copy was put in a ballot box, more than half the contents of which would later be cross-checked with the electronic data to ensure the system had not been hacked. Voters then had to sign a form to confirm they had cast a vote. Before they left, the little finger on their left hand was marked with indelible purple ink so they could not return to vote a second time. "This system is 100% fraud-proof and has been recognised as such by outside political institutions," said Luis Guillermo Piedra, of the National Electoral Council. Former US president Jimmy Carter has described the system as superior to that of the US. His Carter Centre, based in Atlanta, Georgia, has noted that many Venezuelans are concerned a new electronic voting system might enable authorities to tell how they voted, exposing them to retaliation if they voted against Chávez. "This concern has no basis, however," the centre said. "The software of the voting machines guarantees the secrecy of the vote."]" Venezuela: peaceful but partisan mood as voters give verdict on Chávez http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/07/venezuela-voters-chavez?INTCMP=SRCH